Mayor of the Australian city of Gold Coast Tom Tate and Chairman of the Hanoi City People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung discussed bilateral cooperation opportunities in culture, investment, trade and tourism during a working session in Hanoi on September 14.

Chung informed his guest that Hanoi records a total population of over 9.5 million people and an average per capita income of 7,600 USD each year.

Between now and 2020, Hanoi sets three key tasks of high-quality personnel training, administrative reform and infrastructure upgrade.

In education and training, Hanoi has built vocational training schools up to international standards. Nearly 4,000 students from Hanoi are studying in Australia.

The city’s leader proposed enhancing student exchanges to share experience and learn about each side’s culture.

He said Hanoi welcomed 23 million tourists last year, including about 5 million foreigners. Australia was the eighth largest source of tourist arrivals to Hanoi. Meanwhile, Gold Coast, with a 500,000 population, serves 13 million visitors each year. Therefore, Hanoi wants to learn from the city’s experience in tourism promotion.

According to him, Hanoi is in the process of building an e-government and developing a smart city. Learning from the Australian city of Melbourne, Hanoi has planted nearly 1 million trees, replaced old monitor software in localities with WAN system connecting with 30 districts and suburban districts and 584 wards, communes and towns.

The city has built a residential database and launched over 600 online public services at the third and fourth levels.

The host wished to learn from Gold Coast’s experience in applying new technologies in infrastructure and smart city management, and hoped investors from Australian and Gold Coast in particular would invest in the city.

He suggested facilitating high-level visits, and cultural and people-to-people exchange.

Tate, for his part, said Australia always highly values and gives priority to education.

Gold Coast is ready to offer all possible support to Vietnamese and Hanoi students, he said, wishing that Hanoi will also welcome more students from Gold Coast for studies.

The guest also expressed willingness to share experience in city planning, ensuring social security and order, caring for public health and preventing natural disasters, thereby tightening bilateral ties.